Bang a gong
by klylu
Summary: i always knew Normal and bleeding wounds existed for a reason... MA


Pairing: Max/Alec

Genre: romance i guess?  
Summary: i always knew Normal and bleeding wounds existed for a reason...

Disclaimer: i pray every damned night. still... not mine :(

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A/N: i know i should be working on my WIPs. _i know that!! _but... this little bunny was hopping in my mind for a long time. this Sunday he got bored, and kidnapped me to regain his freedom...

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"Been there, done that".

Max's harsh words stung, and hurt him more than the wound bleeding on his shirt. More than he cared to admit, even to himself.

_Back to square one, huh, Maxie?_

He shook his head, chuckling bitterly at his own ingenuity. Because he had really believed that their relationship had changed, that it was evolving... into something different. Something better.

She had opened up to him that night in her apartment, hadn't she? Max had let him see the most vulnerable part of her, the darkest part of her heart no one could have understood but him. She had let him hold her, while she soaked up his shirt with her tears. And a few days later, after discovering his role in the 'pretended boyfriend set up', and deciding, against is better judgement, to play along, Max had apologized to him, and thanked him. All in the same evening!

This had to mean something, right? Well, apparently not. He got shoot, with really no blame on his part for once, and the bitch queen was back!

While Dalton did his best to clean his wound, Alec watched Max. He watched how the anxiety marked her beautiful face, how her concern for everyone in the room cast a gloomy shadow on the fire that usually danced in her chocolate eyes.

Max was everywhere, checking the perimeter, reassuring her fellow JP messengers, encouraging her fellow transgenics. She had a kind word for anyone, OC, Gem, Sketchy, Joshua... She didn't try to comfort Mole of course, but she ordered him to handle the sentry duty, and that was probably the most loving thing you could do for the lizard guy. Heck, she also shot a suspiciously apologetic glance to Normal. Sure, she couldn't stand the guy and his pompous hate for the trannies... still, she didn't want to see him in danger, or hurt.

Normal. Oh god! Did he really matter to her less than Normal did? He had already accepted his jealousy for Logan but his self-esteem wouldn't allow him to feel inferior to Normal too. No way!

But... why she worried about Normal's wellbeing (Normal's, for god's sake!) and couldn't spare a glance in his direction? He was bleeding and she didn't look at him. She didn't pat his shoulder saying stupid, comforting nonsense. She didn't even come close to him.

No, of course she didn't. She was too busy saving Normal's ass! Ok, Alec knew he was exaggerating a little. And Normal's ass? He didn't really want to go there. The point was, Max was concerned about everyone, even Normal, except him. _Never him_.

Alec was slouched on a bench, his right hand carefully holding his injured shoulder. He was still mentally ranting on the unfairness of life, _on Max's unfairness to him_, while his eyes were unconsciously following her around. That was the only reason he didn't miss it. As he let a soft, undetectable-to-human-ears moan (out of pain, or desperation? he really didn't know), he saw her shoulders tense for the briefest moment. Then she turned around and casually, too casually, looked in his direction. She didn't know that he was looking at her as well, and his half-closed eyelids suggested he was a little dazed, probably from the blood loss.

Instead, he was completely focused on her, and successfully hiding it. All that Manticore training did come useful sometimes, right? So, he didn't miss her panicked look and that she instantly chose to approach him. Sure, she didn't make a beeline for him. She just _casually_ moved towards his direction, still ignoring him. When she reached him, she just crouched at his feet, where Dalton was sitting on the ground.

Alec didn't hear her talking to the kid, because a loud gong banged in his head. He didn't know that sudden revelations sounded like that.

In all that mess, Max's senses were trained on him like his were on her.

Of course she could show her concern for everyone except him, because she wasn't concerned about him. She _panicked_ for him.

Even Normal mattered to her, because she was that kind of girl, and because he wasn't really able to take care of himself in a situation like this. But Alec was, he could always manage to take care of himself in any kind of situation. Still, he got into trouble every next day. And even if she yelled, and bitched, and manhandled him, she still was around to save his ass. She really didn't need to, they both knew it, and still, she was.

Every time he got into trouble, got injured, shot or whatever, she panicked. And because, most of the times, he could have helped that, being a little less reckless, or less stupid maybe, she turned her panic into rage, with the usual results.

His smart-alecky remarks and his careless attitude just fuelled her anger even more, and the fire in her eyes burned for him like for nobody else.

Oh shit! She did care for him. Even more than for Normal! Sure, she had a twisted way to show her affection... but he knew he could blame his own behaviour as well. Not only to the trouble magnet part, but to his own incapacity to reveal his fears and his vulnerability. He reacted to them with sarcastic comments and a superficial bravado that always got under her skin... and she reacted to that, and to her own fears, with anger and bitchyness. It was a chain reaction that always escalated till the point of no return.

Ok, time to stop that.

Max and Dalton had finished their little chat, and the kid was running to Gem's side.

"Max?" he called out softly. "Can you check the dressing, please? My shoulder hurts a little."

His tone was pleading kindly, without any sexual innuendo or double meaning whatsoever, and Max was caught off guard. She looked at him with startled eyes, and in her still crouched position she lost her balance and had to grip his knee to avoid falling on her bottom. Max opened her mouth to speak, and closed it without uttering a word. She was staring at his face, watching fascinated the display of different emotions playing on his face. Unmasked, unguarded. Offered to her in plain view.

Alec showed her exactly what he was feeling. His regret for scaring her once again. His need to be comforted even if he was a super soldier. Because, and that was her doing, he now knew he was more than just super soldier, and needed his share of comfort and human touch once in a while.

Max stood, squeezing lightly his thigh in the process. She retreated a little, her questioning eyes locked to his, unwilling to move any further. Alec smiled a little to her reaction, and this shocked her even more.

He knew why. He hadn't smirked or sneered in his usual fashion. That was a true blue smile, that reached his eyes and her heart, convincing her that she could leave him for a moment because, whatever was happening, it was going to last for a while.

Max went to retrieve the first-aid kit, then she sat next to him and begun working on his wound. She hadn't said a word yet, but even if she was concentrating on her task, she glanced at him several times, like she was sizing his pupils to discover a concussion, or something.

"I'm all right, you know", he said, chuckling lightly, amused. Actually, he was a little baffled too. An epiphany, and 5 sec of sincerity, and he had started that 'something better' he had been looking for since forever.

She looked at him, and Alec knew she understood what he meant. That wasn't his trademark, false as ever, I'm-always-all-right façade. He was going for open and sincere, at least with her, and she _understood_. This wasn't caused by a fever or the blood loss, it was the real thing, and she saw the truth in his usually abused words.

But it didn't mean she was letting go that easy.

"No", she said stubbornly, steering the conversation to another level, "you're not". To prove her point, she lightly tapped his shoulder, making him wince in pain.

"Every damned time", Max quietly yelled, "you get hurt, or shot, or kidnapped, or worse! I've got more important things to do than saving your sorry ass or patching you up!" Alec saw the fire blazing in her eyes once again, the fire she saved for him only, and this time, it warmed his heart. He saw the truth under her own façade, where the anger concealed her fear of losing someone she loved, once again. And he felt her hands, still clutching on his arm, trembling slightly.

Alec inched towards her, their foreheads almost touching. He couldn't help tucking a lose strand of black hair behind her ear, and then he let his fingertips linger on her neck. He didn't want to break the contact, and she didn't seem to mind.

"Awww, Maxie!" he said jokingly, "I knew you cared!" His words were mocking as usual, but he let the emotions seep thru.

"No, you didn't, smart ass!" Surprisingly, Max did the same. The harsh tone, the insult, were obviously just an act, barely covering something deep, and powerful.

Because she was telling the truth. He really hadn't known that she did care for him. He had hoped, had wanted to believe she did so badly, that he had failed to realize when it had happened.

Alec's eyes went big as saucers as the lightening struck him for the second time in a few hours. Epiphany didn't really cover it, because he was frozen to the spot, unable to breathe, move, speak or think. He could only feel the heat emanating from Max's body, and he was drawn to her like a moth to a flame, seeking her warmth as the only way to shake off his torpor. So, when his lips sort of landed on hers, it was just _casual_, you know.

Alec was a really lucky guy, because Max was looking at his dumbfounded expression with an affectionate, exasperated smile. And when he finally touched her, when his body just melted on hers, she sighed and offered herself to him. She tilted her head, and her hand, fisting his hair, half guided and half dragged him. Her taste exploding in his mouth was his final answer. His enhanced senses came back online, but they were just focused on Max, and he couldn't perceive anything but her. He didn't mind, though.

Strange. Two sudden revelations had spun his world out of his axis. But just a kiss and he got damn near perfection as he could ever get.

Eventually, even their quite capable lungs run out of air and they reluctantly pulled apart.

Max blinked a few times, and then set her pouty lips, deliciously swollen from the kiss, in a determined line. Again, she closed the distance between them, and purred dangerously in his ear.

"But I'm going to kick your ass till you do, you moron!"

FIN

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A/N2: ok, this was the spur of the moment. Hope it make sense!


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